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Sunday, November 16, 2014

The Hospital Stay

Well, the only problem with using the blog as a baby book is that everyone (including Reece) will know how bad I was at keeping up with it! Kennedy and Cade will never know how long it took me to record events in theirs because I didn't have to record a date each time I did it! I've been making notes in my calendar, though, in hopes that I won't forget everything before I include it here. And, of course, the blog has the added challenge of editing photos before I post them. I suppose it's not too surprising that when I actually have two hands to edit or type, they are busy eating, doing laundry, taking a shower, or sleeping. So, phone photos will have to suffice for now...

Hospital stays are never enjoyable, so I suppose that really it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. There were definitely some things that were different about it, though! First of all, apparently even when you want the baby to "room in" they take that to mean that you should have a few hours to rest and therefore take the baby from you, whether you want them to or not. For 4 hours. The 2 mornings we were there, they took him from 5am to 9am, on the precedence of weighing him and giving him a bath. Four hours seems a bit long for that! And of course, especially on that first morning, with my child only being hours old, I was not able to relax much during that 4 hour period. I'm sure I still had some adrenaline running through my veins (I kept replaying the entire labor in my mind...yikes!), and I was worried about what he was eating and the fact that I wasn't nursing. So, not too relaxing for me. The doctor came back with him at 9am and informed us that he looked really good, but that he had spit up quite a bit after taking a bottle. He was concerned about how much and let us know that he thought he may need a chest x-ray the next day if it continued for the next 24 hours. After Cade, we couldn't possibly imagine how Reece could spit up so much that he would need an x-ray, but we decided not to worry about it yet.

Not long after he finally returned, they moved us to another part of the hospital. Apparently there is no maternity floor, just a labor and delivery ward. They stuck me in a wheelchair, got a cart to put our stuff on, and whisked us through the halls (at an alarming rate!). I had never had to ride in a wheelchair, and it is not an experience I would like to repeat! Once we arrived in our room (which wasn't too bad, by the way), I realized that again Reece was not with us. Apparently, they'd taken him back to the nursery again. Only this time, they hadn't bothered to tell me when he would return! In spite of the fact that I was now on the hardest bed ever made, I was finally able to get some sleep this time. I simply couldn't stay awake any longer.

Our friends who were watching the kids were able to bring them to the hospital to visit us that afternoon (another benefit of choosing a hospital so close to home and school). Kennedy could.not.wait. to hold her little brother, and Cade was more interested in checking out the hospital room, the food, the bathroom. Pretty much anything but his little brother. He didn't hold him at all, but I don't think either one of us were surprised by his reaction. Reece had "brought" books for each of them and Cade was totally engrossed in his as they walked out the door to have dinner and get to bed.

The "Western" menu in the hospital was not as bad as I'd thought it was going to be, though I found it strange that they had me fill out what I wanted for each meal, and then that was not what I was served. Nonetheless, Eric was not thrilled with my leftovers, so he headed out to get a pizza that evening for dinner after the kids left. After eating, we fell asleep watching men's Korean professional volleyball on TV. I was able to sleep for an hour or two before another nurse came in to take Reece for his hearing test. She promised me he would only be gone an hour because he needed to nurse again, but he was gone for 2 hours. Then, he was only back for an hour or 2 before they took him back to the nursery again. (Can you tell this stressed me out?! Kennedy and Cade never left our room unless we went with them, so this was all new to me!) I tried really hard to sleep this time, but there was a nurse coming in to check something at least every hour.

Finally, he arrived back at 9am, and the doctor made no mention of his spitting up this time. My doctor came in and said we could go home (even though most Koreans stay for 4 or 5 days), and we were ready to walk out the door at 10am when they said the nurse from the international clinic would come in to help us get discharged. It was almost noon before we were finally pulling out of the parking lot--after a long spiel from the nurse about newborn care, realizing that we didn't have the Korean birth certificate that we needed for the embassy, and finally getting the bill paid--we were finally headed home! (Well, except for stopping to get cash to pay for the parking that we thought we'd already paid for.) Hallelujah! (And praise the Lord that Reece actually slept in his car seat, after our trip to school this morning, long enough for me to write this!)

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About Me

Hi. I'm Chelsea: wife, mom, daughter, teacher, expat, {amateur} photographer. You'll find me toting my camera everywhere because I never know what my kids are going to do or what I'm going to see exploring the streets of this city. Here is where you'll find our story from Stanwood to Seoul. To read more about us, click on "The Story".